MY HEART sank when I got home the other night to find a fat
dossier from NSW Premier Morris Iemma in the mail. He has about a
thousand things he wants me to keep in mind while I am pursuing the
"unique opportunity to guide Australia's future" at 2020.

So much to remember. So many to represent. Wish lists have been
arriving for a fortnight. I hope I'm up to the task. Authors expect
me to speak up for authors. Gays for gays. Refugee advocates for
refugees. Republicans for the republic.

A man in Pyrmont with ideas for improving "sub federal fiscal
governance" hopes I'll promote an Australian interstate fiscal
commission to examine "ex-ante and ex-post the full impact of
Commonwealth monetary and fiscal policy on the states and
localities". Vince, I can only promise to try.

Monarchists are whingeing they're underrepresented. I can do
nothing for them. Their ranks may be thinning but we'll show them
the sympathy actors traditionally show at matinees knowing that for
many tottering in on their Zimmer frames, this will be their last
public outing.

Brisbane trans activist Linda Petrie emailed that no one has
been chosen to speak for the nation's "roughly 15,000-plus
transgender citizens". So she's asked if I'll "try and squeeze a
word in". I'm feeling stretched thin.

Melbourne intellectual Andrew Bolt has spotted a gerrymander
within the gerrymander: a deliberate overrepresentation of current
and former ABC employees among the "1000 Leftists, rent-seekers,
courtiers, string-pullers, patsies and token tame conservatives"
going. In a Herald Sun column, Bolt lists me among these ABC
types intending to tell the PM "nice stories".

Candour demands I reveal that Glenys Stradijot of Friends of the
ABC (Vic) sent me an email with attachments the minute the 1000
were named in the press. "Pls find attached FABC submissions for a
few areas for Summit. Am sending to you our submissions in hope you
will consider raising the ABC in context of what you might say
about the role of media "

From South Africa came an email urging me to remember how "God
miraculously saved and delivered us as a nation Let us rise
up on wings as eagles as the people we were intended to be, a light
unto the gentiles." This may have been a mistake.

If only Iemma's chunky dossier was too. It's the State Plan
repackaged so we can have at our fingertips "what the NSW
Government is doing to contribute to the Summit topic areas". The
gobbledegook is terrifying: "Communitybuilders.nsw is an
interactive clearing house where the users contribute to its
content and ongoing development by publishing their stories and
tips to the site "

But what killed any ambition to represent NSW is Iemma's
spruiking for the state's wretched FOI regime.

Having exhausted all the sexual, political and professional
possibilities still flowing in as I write an eloquent plea has

just arrived from community legal centres to bear in mind
Australia's poor record implementing the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. I've decided as a last resort
I might as well represent myself. After all, we're only in Canberra
for a yak

1208025478624-theage.com.auhttp://www.theage.com.au/news/national/people-tell-me-theres-summit-needs-attention-but-im-just-goingfor-a-yak/2008/04/18/1208025478624.htmltheage.com.auThe Age2008-04-19People tell me there's 'summit' needs attention, but I'm just going
for a yakDavid MarrNationalhttp://www.theage.com.au/news/national/a-hunting-licence-for-new-ideas/2008/04/19/1208025525820.html'A hunting licence' for new ideastext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/national/facing-up-to-future-challenges/2008/04/19/1208025524132.htmlFacing up to future challengestext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/national/calls-for-biotechnology-discussion/2008/04/19/1208025525842.htmlCalls for biotechnology discussiontext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pm-listens-to-indigenous-leaders/2008/04/19/1208025531514.htmlPM listens to indigenous leaderstext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/national/call-for-states-to-be-abolished/2008/04/19/1208025531492.htmlCall for states to be abolishedtext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/national/minds-of-our-own-gather-for-a-capital-idea/2008/04/18/1208025478621.htmlMinds of our own gather for a capital ideatext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/2020-the-summit-a-kevin-rudd-production/2008/04/18/1208025469917.html2020 the Summit: a Kevin Rudd productiontext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/millions-of-bright-sparks/2008/04/18/1208025468542.htmlMillions of bright sparkstext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/national/blanchett-steals-the-show/2008/04/18/1208025478579.htmlBlanchett steals the showtext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/national/blanchett-steals-the-show/2008/04/18/1208025478579.htmlBlanchett steals the showtext/html-documenthttp://blogs.theage.com.au/yoursay/archives/2008/04/who_are_we.html<b>Your say</b>text/html-internal